Since 1962, Denver FBI agents have worked in cramped quarters in an office building at 19th and Stout streets, where rats and cockroaches were easier to find than a parking spot.
Now Denver’s FBI agents will fight crime from a new, more secure four-story building encased with 2,010 bulletproof glass panels and bomb-resistant components.
Gov. Bill Ritter, Mayor John Hickenlooper, building developer Alex S. Palmer, FBI Executive Assistant Director Thomas J. Harrington and other dignitaries attended a special ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday.
“This building is our way of acknowledging and thanking the men and women who work there . . . who are dedicated to the pursuit of justice,” Ritter said.
The new, $100 million Denver FBI headquarters is 175,155 square feet and sits behind Wal-Mart in the Stapleton neighborhood at 8000 E. 36th St. The location was formerly the old Stapleton Airport tarmac.
The building is LEED certified, which means it meets energy-efficiency standards.
James H. Davis, special agent in charge of the Denver FBI office, said he wished the new digs had been open when they were investigating suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi because agents needed more room to unravel the complicated case.
Agents now have a view of the Rocky Mountains, a safer building that meets post- 9/11 security guidelines, and room to house special teams that used to be spread in different locations throughout Denver.
Special FBI teams such as the Joint Terrorism Task Force and evidence-response agents are expected to work together under one roof and have easier access to their equipment and technology, said Harrington, who worked in the old Denver FBI building 25 years ago.
“In the old building the lights and air conditioning shut off at 5 p.m.,” Harrington said. “And the basement flooded every spring.”
The FBI signed a 20-year lease at about $17,000 a day with Alex S. Palmer, who owns and developed the building.
